Defining and conceptualizing impact investing: Attractive nuisance or catalyst?

Kai Hockerts, Lisa Hehenberger, Stefan Schaltegger, Vanina Farber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle in a journalpeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue on impact investing applies the attractive nuisance notion to impact investing. Social sector actors ‘trespassing’ on the playing field of conventional investment markets may not appreciate the risks. We apply the framework of essentially contested concepts to foster fruitful diverse research in this emerging research field. We advance six dimensions (intentionality, additionality, contribution, materiality, measurability and attribution), which we propose allow to describe different sub-clusters of how the term is used in research and practice. For each dimension we identify risks and opportunities stemming from the contested nature and highlight an ambitious research agenda for how future business ethics scholars can help address and foster impact investing. We conclude by illustrating how the papers in this special issue address these challenges.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)937-950
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Business Ethics
Volume179
Issue number4
Early online date26 Jul 2022
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Keywords

  • Impact investing
  • Intentionality
  • Measurement

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